POCKETWATCH

Songs of the Night

Sunday, June 20

Linday Roush | soprano
Alex Taite | tenor
David Drummond | piano

Featuring the talents of soprano Lindsay Roush and tenor Alex Taite, this Summer Solstice treat and our third installment will enchant us with various arias and Songs of the Night.

David Drummond will be Music Director and accompanist for this concert. Both artists will be present for the post-concert Live Talkback.

The concert was followed by a Live Talkback with Artistic Director Nicolas A. Garcia and our artists, including a preview of some exciting things to come!

Lindsay Roush grew up in an inherently musical household; piano lessons from Dad and Grandma, choirs, voice lessons, Peninsula Teen Opera for 7 years, and finally, a BM and MM in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.

Lindsay has taught voice lessons, vocally directed and directed youth musical productions throughout the bay area. Her performing career so far includes solos and roles with SF Chorus Society, Masterworks Chorale, Pocket Opera, Lamplighters Music Theatre, and Opera San Jose. She served as a teaching artist with the SF Opera Guild for several years in a row, confirming an ever-growing passion for educating young people about music. After the fires in Paradise, CA, Lindsay put together a benefit concert to provide some relief to the families affected, igniting a new passion for using her talents to serve others in a tangible way.

Lindsay’s most current labors of love take the form of children. Hayes (4) and Eliot (1) are beautiful, energetic treasures. She has recently stepped down from her ‘day job’ serving on staff as Worship Leader at Saratoga Federated Church to soak up as much time at home with the kids as possible. No other profession can compare to the joy of motherhood, but making beautiful music with wonderful people comes in a close second!

A resident and native of Oakland, tenor Alex Taite has robust interests and skills including Opera, Choral, Spiritual, Barbershop, Jazz, Blues, Renaissance/ Baroque, Vocal Percussion and Hip-hop. He has studied classical and jazz piano since the age of 8, and has played in bands in a variety of styles. He has sung in the San Francisco Opera Chorus since 2007, as well as roles with Berkeley Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, Island City Opera, Festival Opera, and Berkeley Chamber Opera.

In 2015, Alex directed, cast, and conducted a gospel and spirituals with baritone Lester Lynch. He spent 4 years as a member of the Vocal Faculty at Oakland School for the Arts, teaching music theory and classical performance.

He was a finalist in the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition in 2014 and 2016, and was a finalist in the East Bay Opera League vocal scholarship program. He was also selected as a piano finalist in the Young Performers Concert series in San Francisco. Currently,
he directs the graduate level chorus at the San Francisco Boys Chorus.

He is finishing up publishing and recording a songbook of his own arrangements of Negro Spirituals in two volumes – one for solo voice with piano, and one for a capella chorus.

Handel, with Care

Sunday, April 18

Marcelle Dronkers | soprano
Jefferson Packer | piano

This concert features one of Pocket Opera’s favorite sopranos, Marcelle Dronkers. Marcelle has performed some of Handel’s evil sorceresses such as Agrippina, Alcina, and Armida on the Pocket Opera stage with rave reviews. This is why you have to Handel, with Care!

The concert was followed by a Live Talkback, with Artistic Director Nicolas A. Garcia and our artists.

Soprano 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 has performed most of Mozart’s heroines, Handel’s evil sorceresses and Verdi’s Lady Macbeth with Pocket Opera, with whom she was also heard in the notoriously difficult rôle of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. Favorite performances have included Verdi’s Requiem with Masterworks Chorale, Soprano I in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Redwood Symphony, Strauss’ Four Last Songs of Strauss with LiederAlive, and Britten’s War Requiem with the San Francisco Choral Society in Davies Symphony Hall.

Alongside her Teaching Artist position with San Francisco Opera, Marcelle is Senior Lecturer at Notre Dame de Namur University, Adjunct Professor at College of San Mateo, soloist at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, and maintains a private voice studio in Kensington, where she resides with her rock drummer/composer/ screenwriter son, Christopher, and assorted feral felines. She holds degrees from Indiana University and the Royal Conservatory at The Hague, The Netherlands. By a quick count, Marcelle has sung some 25 roles with Pocket Opera!

Since moving to the Bay Area in 1998, 𝗝𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿 has established himself first as an accompanist, primarily of singers, and then as a singer himself. He has a degree in Music and Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard, as well as a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from SFSU where he studied with William Corbett-Jones. Prior to that, he was privileged to study with Donald Pippin himself and work for Pocket Opera as Libretto Project Coordinator.

Jefferson has also worked as Manager of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and has sung all over the Bay Area in groups such as the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Volti, Grace Cathedral, Marin Baroque, American Bach Chorale, and is the bass soloist and section leader at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. He lives in San Francisco with his husband Marcel, a violist, and their Corgi mix Figaro